The Ankeny boys’ soccer team closed out its CIML Conference schedule with a 3-2 loss at Urbandale on Friday.
The seventh-ranked Hawks finished 3-4-1 in the league and dropped to 9-5-2 overall heading into Monday’s regular-season finale against visiting Marshalltown.
Urbandale raised its records to 5-3 and 9-4. The win allowed the J-Hawks to tie No. 10 Ankeny Centennial and Waukee Northwest for a second-place finish behind No. 1 Valley, which went a perfect 8-0 in the conference.
“As a collective, we are frustrated with the result and the performance as we didn’t play well throughout the game,” said Ankeny coach Trevor Fuccio.
Urbandale held a 1-0 lead at halftime. Each team then scored a pair of goals in the final 40 minutes.
Landon Benge and Jack Croskey had Ankeny’s goals with assists going to Brian Jimenez and Andrew Loder. Benge scored his 22nd goal of the season, which is tied for third in Class 4A.
Jackson Dockendorff and Carter Lee split the goalkeeping duties for the Hawks. They combined for five saves.
“We wanted to make sure that our younger guys on the bench got meaningful minutes and that our starters stayed under a minutes restriction,” Fuccio said. “We were able to do that as we played 25 guys, and it was good exposure for them to play against starters from a quality opponent in the conference.
“The boys know we let this game get away from us, and hopefully it drives the work rate and the attitude next week,” he added.